The Ethics of Micromedia Content Production

Depending on who you ask, you will probably be told that there are four major branches of philosophy: metaphysics (and ontology); logic (and language); epistemology; and ethics. In this article I want to discuss some of the ethical concerns with which I have dealt, and shall continue to deal, as the publisher and content creator of my very own micromedia platform (i.e. this website). When researching and sharing new ideas and information, what actions can be fairly considered ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and why? By sharing my views, I hope to encourage the reader to consider their own opinions on these matters, while simultaneously documenting for posterity the many strands of thought which have been bouncing around in my mind over the past weeks, months, and even years.

Ethics vs morality

For an interesting explanation of etymological difference between the terms ‘ethics’ and morals’, see this article. In the context of what is to follow, by ‘ethics’ I simply mean the conscious ‘right/wrong’ framework which guides behaviour of an individual in his interactions with the world around him.

No branch of thought or philosophy is entirely distinct from the others

This article is concerned primarily with the ethics of micromedia content production. An individual’s views on this matter will obviously be guided by (among other things) their metaphysics and epistemology and, although I am in the process of writing up an explanation of my own perspectives on these topics, a deeper analysis is beyond the scope of this article. It shall suffice to say that I do not know (or have any strong beliefs regarding) who we are, what we are, where we are, when we are, how long we have been here, or why we are here. I am however confident that almost every answer we have been given about these questions, by school, TV, church, and other humans, is absurd and amusingly silly when properly scrutinised by an objective mind.

Insofar as this is relevant to my ethics, I do not believe in a dualistic conception of ‘god’ as a separate entity from myself or this world, or in time as a linear ‘4th dimension’, or that we evolved from a lower ‘species’ or organism, or that we were ‘created’ by a divine force. I am open-minded to these possibilities, and have spent a great deal of time studying and pondering all of them, but at this point in time I do not believe in any of them. My ethics therefore are not driven (at least consciously) by a desire to please a deity (or to avoid upsetting him/it), or out of concerns regarding ‘karma’ (cosmic consequences in the ‘future’), or by some bizarre notion that my actions are the product of ‘millions of years of evolution’.

My fundamental ethical precept

I just want to treat others the way I would like to be treated, in the present moment. That is all.

Many people know of this notion as the ‘golden rule’, and will cite ancient authors/gurus and religious texts, to suggest that this is a long-held guideline/teaching of human morality. This article is neither the time nor place to explain why I do not believe ‘history’ – as in, physical things which took place in the material world and were documented accurately – goes back more than a few human generations. It shall suffice to say that my reason for wanting to treat others as I would like to be treated has nothing at all to do with what other people have allegedly said in the ‘past’.

Can I articulate for you a compelling argument as to why you should adopt the same fundamental ethical precept for your own existence? No. And I’m not going to try to. What this article is designed to do is to share with you my own ethical framework, as explained at the outset. Your own ethics are your business and I am not attempting to in any way alter them with this article.

So how would I like to be treated by others?

In no particular order, I would like to be:

Forgiven when I am truly sorry for a mistake (and am making a genuine effort to rectify/not repeat it)

Treated as benevolent (not as an enemy) unless I have proven myself to be belligerent

Not bullied. That is, left alone by people who know (or believe) they are more powerful than me in some way

Not intentionally misled – even by parties who believe that misleading me may be ‘good’ for me.

That is pretty much it. There are many other things I ‘want’, such as support for my cause, but I do not really expect this from anybody. Certainly I do not expect myself to support everybody elses causes, so it would be silly for me to expect everybody else (or any particular individual) to support my cause. There are many other examples. Insofar as there are ways I would like to be treated, the four above broadly encapsulate those which I think are fair and reasonable, and which I myself attempt to uphold when dealing with others.

How this is relevant to running a micromedia platform?

Let’s start with an example. I recently stumbled upon a vast array of information pertaining to an individual who has some prominence in the ‘independent media’ scene. This information seemed like it would be of great interest to my audience, many of whom have listened to the individual in question as a guest on a separate independent platform. The information I compiled proves (in my opinion) a number of important points I have been making for some time about how the world works. Specifically, the fact that – with rare exception – nobody in this scene is double-checking anything, and also that this force we know as the ‘internet’ possesses (and is willing to share) a wealth of information comparable to that of a ‘god’ (omniscience) if only we take the time to look.

Before I knew it, I had compiled a 17,000-word document pertaining not merely to the individual in question, but a much broader backstory concerning Australian corporate history and a number of conspicuous connections between high-profile Australian politicians and the wealthy ‘elite’. None of this proved that anybody had broken any laws or done anything ‘wrong’ but, for a number of reasons which are beyond the scope of this article, the information gathered did call into question not only the account of the individual concerned regarding how he accumulated his wealth, but also his implied position as an industry ‘outsider’ (among other things).

Here is the problem: I had never intended to produce, let alone publish, an article which might be in any way construed as a criticism, much less an attack, upon the individual in question. Based on the research, the piece I have written is objective and neutral in tone, and does not make any conclusions which are not entirely supported by the references and citations. I know from bitter experience, however, that when somebody conveys information, certain audience members are liable to not only draw their own conclusions from the information (which they are well withiin their rights to do), but to then project their conclusions as the intention or opinion of the one conveying the underlying information. This can be the case even when the author states explicitly and repeatedly that he does not hold the opinion being projected onto him.

What was I to do? I put myself in the shoes of the individual in question. What if somebody else out there had compiled a 100+ source, 17,000-word article about my own backstory? I would like them to treat me as benevolent; that is, treat me not as their enemy, unless I had proven to be so. I would like to treat me as merely another human, one who means them no harm or ill-will. If they had information which might potentially be against my interests if publicly disseminated, I would not want them to bully me with it. What I would like is for them to contact me to ensure that whatever they were going to publish was at least accurate (and, insofar as humanly possible, ‘fair’). I would like them to ensure that they had the whole story, not merely for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of anybody else who might read the piece and not want to be potentially misled by it. That is what I would like.

And so I contacted the individual in question and offered to send him a draft of the article, and to publish, as either a foreword or post-script to the article, his response to the information contained within it verbatim. If anything was wrong or factually incorrect, I would remove it; if anything was missing or would otherwise provide fuller context, I would happily add it. I made it clear that the intent of the article was not to attack or diminish the standing of him in any way. I treated the individual in question as I would like to be treated.

The next problem: He never replied. Once I finished the article, I contacted the individual in question via his website. He then sent me his preferred email address to receive the draft. I sent the draft, and then correspondence ended. Not even an email to confirm that the draft was received. I followed that email up with another, to check in on the matter, more than a week later. Still, no reply. Without his input, the article could only be published in its existing form. If there were errors, or if relevant information was lacking, this could not be rectified, as I would be oblivious to it. It could well be that there are no errors, and that no relevant information is lacking, but without any reply whatsoever, how could I know for sure?

Thus I am left in the situation whereby an important article, into which I put an unprecedented amount of time and effort, and which I am certain that many of this website’s financial supporters would find most interesting, currently sits unpublished. When I do publish it, I have good reason to suspect that some readers will draw conclusions about the individual in question which most people would prefer that others not draw about them. I also know that there is a chance that those who draw these conclusions will project them onto me, as though they are my conclusions, even though the article repeatedly and explicitly explains that the only conclusions I am drawing are those outlined in the section entitled ‘conclusions’. As a researcher/independent journalist/content creator who puts integrity and ethics at the forefront of my entire operation, this is not an ideal situation.

It does however provide a perfect example of the ethical concerns which face a micromedia content producer like myself. There are countless other micromedia publishers out there who may face similar concerns, but what sets me apart is that I am the only person, with the only platform, who engages in the kind of deep research which may lead somebody to the situation described above. Who else is liable to produce a 100+ source, 17,000-word document detailing the background of an individual whose current claim to fame is as the guest on an independent media network? Show me them and I will visit their website pronto (and probably sign up as a member if such membership is offered). Those content creators who deal in trivialities, banalities, and surface-level investigations will face ethical concerns of their own, but not of the magnitude which I will. It is, for better or worse, that simple.

Let’s look at a different example: man on the street

People love ‘man on the street’ (MotS) interviews. Mark Dice has built a large YouTube subscriber base and one of the main methods by which he has done this is his MotS interviews, which usually feature moronic-sounding normies embarrassing themselves on camera when asked simple questions. The success of this method is also repeated by lower-level YouTubers such as Del of ‘Beyond the imaginary curve’, who interviews unsuspecting heliocentrists who are soon shown to not understand their own belief system. Between his MotS interviews and regular google hangouts, Del has built up a relatively large subscriber base of his own in the space of just a few months. People love MotS interviews – especially when they feature the ‘other side’ being embarrassed.

Here is the problem: by interviewing unsuspecting normies, the likes of Dice and Del are effectively bullying their subjects. Dice knows full well that many normies are essentially retarded, and if he interviews enough of them, he will find a few who make their retardation plain to see. Voila, a new three-minute video which gets laughs at the expense of said normies. Del knows full well that most normies are completely oblivious to the physical explanations which underpin the official (accepted) cosmology of our earth. Regardless of the shortcomings of his own Flat Earth belief, Del is able to embarrass these normies by asking them routine questions which he knows they will usually be unable to answer. Once again, laughs are had at the expense of people whose only crime was to be kind enough to take part in an interview, and thus reveal that their ‘education’ and TV has made them dumb as rocks.

In a way, this can be likened to a trained fighter asking chumps on the street if they would like to spar on camera. Not only this, it is like the trained fighter acting weak and hiding their power level until the chump agrees to the spar. What follows is as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. While the unsuspecting normie who is embarrassed by Dice or Del walks away without a black eye, it remains the case that they have been taken advantage of by somebody more powerful than them, who knew they were more powerful than them. This to me is a form of bullying, and also potentially a form of misleading. It is not the way I would like to be treated, and is therefore not the way I would like to treat others.

Here is my specific ethical problem: just about everybody is a normie to me. Read 37 Things Normies Believe. I do not believe any of them. Not only that, I am confident that I can embarrass, with simple questions, anybody who does profess to believe in these things. While my peers and contemporaries are watching TV programming, or playing video games, I am studying the official stories of our times and identifying the weak arguments and claims which underpin those stories. This is precisely why I no longer believe those 37 Things (and so many other things as well). This means that no matter who I interview, on just about any topic I personally find interesting or worth exploration, I am liable to embarrass – whether or not they realise it – anybody who is kind enough to lend their appearance to the camera. This is compounded by the fact that the audience my website has attracted is likely to see and understand the normies’ failings, even if I do not point them out myself. Then there is my YouTube channel(s), which have attracted a large swathe of cretinous individuals who will viciously (albeit virtually) attack those who disagree with them. Regardless of where I post any MotS interviews, I run the risk of embarrassing the normies.

This is the single primary reason why I have not utilised the MotS interview method with my platform, even though I know how quickly it could raise the profile of my YouTube channel and website. To borrow from the same ‘trained fighter’ analogy used earlier, it is only fair if I interview people who not only know my power level, but are also powerful themselves. How many normies do you think are even in my ballpark (pardon the mixed metaphor)? The honest answer is: almost none. I wish this were not the case, but it obviously is.

The same can be said for online debates, although here there is a clear distinction: many of those who have made the mistake of taking part in live debates with me, have done so despite knowing who I am and what my channel is about. Take Antonio, for instance: it was he who challenged me to that debate in May last year. There is a reasonable argument to be made that I ought to have talked him out of it, like a brown belt being challenged by a yellow. In my defense, I did not realise just how hopeless he was at the time the debate was organised. In fact, it was only during my preparation for the debate (which entailed dozens of hours of further research beyond that which I had already put into FE) that I came to understand just how utterly weak the entire belief system really is. At the risk of belabouring the analogy, I didn’t fully understand the gulf in our strength levels until we got into the ring, and by then it was too late to say, ‘mate, it seriously isn’t worth it’.

This leads to another ethical problem

While at the Brisbane Z-Day, I interviewed a man who calls himself Mark Enoch. I had attended a ‘workshop’ he ran which was centred on how to spread leaflets/stickers/etc in public places for maximum exposure of whatever cause being promoted. Later the next day he was trying to hand me a wad of ‘resource based economy’ leaflets to distribute on my way home, and I said words to the effect: ‘If you want to get your message out there, why don’t we do an interview for my channel? It will probably get somewhere from 500-1000 views’. He seemed excited at the idea, and I told him to think it over until the day’s presentations were over. If he was still interested, I told him, he should find me at the end of the day and we could record some footage. Sure enough he was still interested, and had even prepared a one-minute monologue to deliver to the camera. We recorded that, and then also recorded a short interview with both of us in frame. The only ‘controversial’ questions I asked him were on the very same topic(s) I had asked Zeitgest guru/demigod Peter Joseph earlier in the day (in front of 200 people, and live on camera): ‘What are your thoughts on 9/11’, and ‘is it possible we are being lied to by NASA?’

I was not trying to embarrass him, and he knew full well what kind of questions I might ask, because I had asked the top dog the very same questions, in front of a full theatre, earlier that day. To his credit, Mark gave sensible/understandable responses, along the lines of, ‘9/11 was an inside job’ and ‘we should question everything (including NASA)’. Despite the fact that this is exactly the kind of MotS interview the broader audience of this scene would like to see, I did not even publish the interview to YouTube. Instead I uploaded Mark’s (hopelessly naive) monologue to my YouTube channel, and saved the interview for Full Members of this website. I even explicitly stated underneath the YouTube video that if anybody attacked Mark for his RBE nonsense (rather than criticising the nonsense itself) I would delete their comments:

Screenshot taken 31-Mar-2017

By giving Mark’s monologue such a platform, without editorial commentary from myself, I was obviously opening myself up to criticism, which is exactly what the 5:20 thumbs up:down ratio reveals I received. The point I am making here is that I do not think I could have been any more fair in dealing with Mark, save for not conducting the interview at all.

Here is the problem: I received an email demanding I remove the material, just hours after staying up late into the night editing, rendering and uploading the videos in question. In line with my ethical framework, I immediately set the YouTube video to private and removed the Full Member video pending further explanation from the interlocutor as to their identity, and reasons for making such a demand. Twenty-four hours later, they had still failed to verify their identity, or answer my simple questions. I therefore reinstated the material and explained to the interlocutor why I was doing so, and that if Mark himself wanted me to remove the material, he need only contact me himself and I would reconsider my decision. I was then threatened with a $100,000 penalty/fee for publishing the material. This is where the correspondence ended.

The reality is that if Mark himself made a polite request for me to remove the content from public view, even though I have spent several hours putting it together, I would be obliged by my own ethics to accommodate the request. I naturally hope this does not happen, as I think the interview went well. If, on the other hand, I was to learn that it was Mark himself who had threatened me with a $100,000 penalty/fee, then this would change things. I do not like to be treated as a belligerent. When somebody threatens me with a $100,000 penalty/fee, they prove themselves to be a belligerent towards me. I do not like to be bullied. When somebody claims to be able to sue or otherwise extract $100,000 from me for publishing material I legally and ethically procured, they are bullying me (even if I know they do not have a legal leg to stand on). This is where ethical frameworks are put to the test, and one of the many reasons why I thought it pertinent to document my own thoughts on these matters sooner rather than later.

Another important example

On this website I deal with topics which are not merely controversial, but potentially life-altering. I know this because the information I have gleaned over the past three years has literally and demonstrably changed my own life. Or, more accurately, the information has led me to make changes to the way I live my life. This can be serious stuff. Within days of learning about the depths of the birth trauma inflicted upon innocent people within modern hospital ‘maternity wards’, I had quit my (relatively) well-paying job. Not only that, but I then went on to self-fund a meagre but sufficient existence and lifestyle, in order to work full-time building my own micromedia website, the fruits of which are borne every time somebody derives benefit from consuming the content published here. While I do not expect that this information will lead anybody else to actions anywhere near as drastic as my own, I am fully cognisant of the fact that this kind of information can have profound impacts on peoples minds and, potentially, their lives.

It was as a result of the Ball Earth Skeptic Roundtable that I came to understand just how easily my work can be misunderstood, and therefore lead to negative consequences. Several people have explained to me directly that they not only thought I was promoting Flat Earth, but that my apparent promotion of the belief system played some role in their own adoption of it. This despite the fact that I made it explicitly clear on multiple occasions during the series that my rejection of heliocentrism (‘spinning ball earth theory’) does not entail belief in Flat Earth. I learned the hard way that what we say, and what others hear, are two entirely separate things – they are of course related, but they are fundamentally distinct. As a content creator I am now very cautious as to what I say publicly, because I am now far more aware of how my words can be misconstrued even by intelligent, well-meaning people.

The problem: Short of explaining myself personally and individually, to every single member of the audience, and then partaking in a dialogue to ensure my position is understood, there is no way to entirely mitigate the potential problem described above. This is one of the main benefits of employing a structured content release mechanism, which is a key function served by the membership element of this site. There is public material (chiefly via YouTube channels JohnleBon and JohnleBonEXTRA), limited release material (chiefly via Free Membership and the mailing list i.e. JLBSelect videos), and exclusive material (Full Membership). Full Members of this website are warned in the Welcome Video that the topics dealt with here may have unintended and unwanted effects on their thinking patterns – and offered a full refund if after watching that Welcome Video they change their mind about their membership. It is highly unlikely that anything I post to Full Members will be seen/heard by people who have not had full and fair warning about what they might see/hear.

Is this enough to alleviate all potential negative consequences which might result from publishing my material? Of course not. I am open to suggestions on other methods I might employ to achieve such ends. In the mean time, this is the best strategy I have come up with yet and, for the most part, it seems to be working. This will be more fully put to the test when I release new content (currently under construction) on topics like Stationary Ball Earth Model, the medical (death) industry, and fake history. All three of those articles (and accompanying videos) will be released to Full Members first (and probably exclusively). I hope to never hear from a member of this site that what they have read or seen has had a negative impact on their lives. If (or when) this happens, I will obviously need to reevaluate everything.

Innocent victims

I went into some detail in Full Member Update #1 about my concerns regarding the town of Winton, and specifically the people whose livelihoods depend on the utter nonsense being peddled at the ‘dinosaur museum’ there. Those of you who have not yet studied the facts surrounding the Dinofraud, and the Age of Dinosaur Discovery (Winton) in particular, my not yet realise the significance of the Dinoskeptic project. I do not expect the film to ever be seen by more than a few hundred people, and I certainly do not predict that it will have any significant effect on the dinosaur industry – in Winton or elsewhere. That said, my project will inevitably involve the exposé of a shambolically blatant piss-take of an operation; an organisation built upon a what can be diplomatically described as ‘scientifically-approved exaggerations’. Sadly there is no way for my film to proceed without such an exposé; indeed, it is the entire point of the project. What I can and will do is treat those I encounter on the trip with respect, and do my best to ensure that the useful idiots who believe their own nonsense are not misconstrued as deliberate liars (which I think few, if any, of them really are).

In summary

By ‘ethics’ I mean the framework which guides our conscious behaviour in dealing with others
Our ethics are directly related to our metaphysics and epistemology
My metaphysics and epistemology are very different from that of the typical normie
I don’t pretend to be able to convince you of my own ethics – this article is not intended to do so
Instead I want to share with you my own framework (for your benefit and mine)
I merely want to treat others as I would like them to treat me at this moment in time
There are several examples which demonstrate how I put this ethical framework into practice
This framework will continue to be tested as my micromedia platform continues to grow and evolve

What happens from here

My article on the individual in question will be published, with or without his input, within a few days. I have given him fair and frank ‘right of reply’ and for one reason or another he appears to have seen fit to ignore it. As I explained to him in my follow-up email, my offer will remain open even after the article is published.

My material pertaining to Mark Enoch will remain published unless and until he politely asks me to remove it.

My content concerning topics like Stationary Ball Earth Model, the medical (death) industry, and fake history, will be released as soon as completed (likely before the Dinoskeptic trip).

My Dinoskeptic roadtrip begins on April 20. The car is booked. I’m excited and you should be too – especially Full Members of this website who will be receiving daily video updates beginning April 13 (one week before the roadtrip begins) and the right throughout the trip itself.

Peter’s reply was rather vague. Sadly I did not take notes on it because the whole thing was being filmed (by several cameras) and I assumed I would be able to find the video online and work from that. Now I learn that the livestream was a facebook livestream (no longer available), and the main camera footage is being edited before being released (with an indefinite release date to boot). I hope they see fit to release the entire Q&A, if and when they release anything at all. My question really was not that controversial or ‘against the grain’, all things considered. In fact, if they do release the footage, I imagine some people will accuse me of ‘going too easy’ on Joseph. Given the current circumstances, I hope that my decision to ask a relatively benign question can be seen for the tactically-sensible decision it was.

Long story short, from memory Joseph referred to ‘conspiracies’ and basically said, ‘it all depends how far you want to go with it’. I then made a follow-up question, along the lines of, ‘If we realise that they can deceive us all, why would we not question everything, including ‘science’ and what they tell us about space’. His response was polite, and he didn’t try to defend NASA or anything, but he was also very measured in avoiding the point of the question. The dude was slick, I’ll give him that.

As for the demands that I remove the Enoch video, I still don’t even know who was responsible for those emails. I have not heard back from them since my decision to republish the material.

The car is booked for the Dinoskeptic roadtrip, so our collective patience will soon be tested no further. Stay tuned!

i appreciate the fighting metaphor. it prompted me to pen the only lingering ‘criticism’ that rears its head whenever i hear a gulliver belittle ‘putions.

after discovering its content last year, i’ve sometimes felt frustrated, even slight disappointment when the jlb project, ushering an era of scientific skepticism among other lofty endeavors, appeared over occupied with decrying bit characters inside ‘truth’ scene.

not for pointing out limitations with endorsed ‘models’ or throwing shade at – while simultaneously shining light on – select charlatans, thereby alerting short sighted folks who might otherwise fall victim to their ruses. indeed it’s a noble act to remind gullible souls that snake oil salespeople aren’t some relic of the distant past. their serpent tongued lineage today permeate an ever broadening spectrum of markets, peddling a wider array of placebos… even seductive ‘truth’ traps which administer enough emotional medicine to offset the poisonous nocebo effects inflicted on their prey.

no…the only vexing aspect was that on more than a few occasions, it sounded like a pugilist punching – or retroactively shadowboxing in commentary – way below their weight class. understandably, when provoked by weaker opponents who are either dumb or delusional, one may get temporary satisfaction from hanging these amateur assailants with nooses they unknowingly tie for themselves. but if no other tactical purposes are in play, unplanned or spontaneous, predictable outcomes sans any shifts in positions or behavior on the part of the losers after the bell… lose victorious luster from ringside seats.

perhaps a video showcasing and instructing to the community how you perform deep research would be more helpful for the hopeless?

*much easier for me to sit outside the ropes and opine than stand inside the squared circle, but an observation from a fan of the fighter and sport nonetheless.*

alternatively, despite the difficulty – if not impossibility – of finding legitimate forums where debate or discourse could be had on key topics (perhaps with an ‘accredited’ physics instructor, paleontologist or panel of publicly respected academics) – such a scenario would at least offer ‘professional’ parrying against what seems (at least partially thus far to me) a more nuanced, exploratory form of epistemological nihilism.

to be fair, from time to time i deem it necessary to administer a few jabs, right hooks… even an uppercut or three to punish those who trespass too far into territory they are not adequately trained. any prolonged condescension toward my ‘crazy’ opinions get a good whooping.

i don’t remember all the names, dates or content pieces, and don’t wish to belabor the point, but bemoaning these types and their brethren are beneath the standards i feel the jlb project represents. i know getting someone ‘prestigious’ such as that annoying little rodent lawrence krauss at a round table is unlikely – but my overarching point is that if the weight classes were heavier, the matches might draw a more sophisticated crowd (or adversary) into the amphitheater, if that is in fact one desired outcome of these interactions.

ok, that’s more than enough on that front.

moving on, while the shape of the earth has little bearing on what i eat for breakfast, i still have casual interest in the topic. it’s been thought provoking, and i enjoy pondering the arguments and counterpoints, speculation about space, the who and why behind the helio deception (e.g. i don’t think it’s solely hustling tax dollars or hiding a creator).

in short, the pursuit of understanding more detail about what we live on i feel is a worthy quest.

of the interpersonal stories i’ve unavoidably stumbled upon…none are compelling in the slightest.

as for the content, it’s hard to stay tuned. after listening to several dozen shows and video compilations from the usual suspects, the material sounded repetitious…a recycling of the same collective refuse. and how can i take a model seriously if its adherents never traveled to antarctica, let alone flown outside their native country? yet still remain adamant about the topography of other continents.

based on…based on what? interview clips from a military officer? a birdseye two dimensional map no different in source veracity than the painting of the pale blue dot?

and what’s with the widespread appeal to a christian god? notwithstanding all the problems with inerrancy, couldn’t an omniscient being design a world in any shape it wanted? if our bodies are primarily composed of water, our heads ‘spheres’ and attached limbs filled with liquid traveling in all different directions…why then couldn’t the earth be a round organism? or something else entirely? this is a crude analogy, and if pressed i’d wager the terrain we walk on is more flat than curved, but far too many assumptions are made about what this creator can or couldn’t do. nor do many address the many sound arguments against intelligent + benevolent design.

flaws abound in fe and other topics, which i’m sure everyone here is familiar, and i welcome more criticisms going forward. if there are individuals in front of (or behind) the flat earth pack – especially ones with access to wealth (not narrowcast publishers making a few bucks on ad sense) i’d be very interested in reading the expose.

for any and all pebbles helping this hansel find his way in the forest…i’m grateful.

– excited to see how the winton staff will receive your questions. hopefully not with a hand over the camera or requests to discontinue recording. i’m sure you have a few preemptive chess moves up your sleeve to avoid these brick walls.

-mark dice is blood curdling and man on street acts are a perfect exemplar of how pathetic trolls in the alternative scene can be. after they’ve recently awakened, they’ll immediately go point out to others how ‘stupid’ or brainwashed they are, when just a few fortnights prior, they suffered from the same common delusional worldviews as the random subjects they use as fodder.

*last note on this comment, which concerns frameworks, but a diversion from this post’s theme.

i enjoy and derive value from the spoken and written words here, and look forward to future content. so far the material hasn’t jarred the innards like the exordium page forebodes. i know nothing was on offer, nor to be expected, but is there something in the pipeline that might introduce a grander paradigm shift from where some of us, (i’m assuming most members of this site) have already settled in? if used for dramatic effect or to scare off normies who may have dipped their feet in the waters but whose hard ‘truths’ too cold to plunge… perfectly understandable. and i know the answers to one’s life itself are found from within, but from the lie system standpoint, I’m wondering if there’s something around the corner that’s revelatory.

i ask mainly because my chief aim, not just from this site, but from time invested in the various scenes online, is to acquire something like an add-on or even an api to accelerate / augment my deprogramming and understanding of this realm. maybe a cheat code to get me to a different level in this ‘game?’ as i feel no more ‘awoken’ than when I recognized the nasa deception.

if none of the above exist, perhaps a deep defrag of the os to have a more stable hardware / software from which to run life’s applications. again, it is up to me to conduct my own research and find my own answers, but i know others have journeyed longer, farther, and are likely more adept – so i’d love to leverage or model their route so as not to waste time with a broken compass.

did voltaire have the answer long ago? should i stop fretting over the system i’m stuck in, with a never ending labyrinth of lies, and simply tend to my tomatoes? self improvement is always a good solution to aching existential quandaries, but if there’s lidocaine cream out there that can alleviate some of the aching…i’d like to buy it in bulk.

*i am not referring to any ra ra weekend or motivational seminars*

i’ll appeal to all subscribers as i don’t expect any one person to have solutions and would love to foster more of a community in the comments.

the same cosmic ether that drew us to jlb.com, is the same that has always pulled me away from paths that are far more socially acceptable and materially rewarding. my choices have baffled most people in my personal and professional spheres, especially in new york where the obsession with making money and social status is almost cult like.

but this never ending detour in the ‘truth scene’ – for some reason keeps pulling me off road. is it a form of escape? perhaps. though i don’t find much of it entertaining (except some of jlb’s tongue in cheek oratory. those are funny 🙂

in all seriousness my instincts continue to whisper that i’ll find my foundation…or at least a better structure from which to launch my life’s “purpose”, trivial and overused as the expression may be.

ever changing as one’s journey is, it’s always been challenging for me to commit to one road or another, as i see dead ends down all of them. the road signs are visible to me from afar based on the illegitimacy of the terrain and the discrepancy in values that make it hard to even get to the ‘end of the road’ given the many sacrificial toll booths along the way.

oy vey.

c’Est LeBon

Sometimes I wonder where my life is taking me
Sometimes I wonder what they all expect of me
Well there are days I can tell you quite honestly
I see myself ending up in the monastery

As always, thank you very much for the thoughtful comment. I know it might sound silly to others, but I get a lot out of this kind of feedback. For one thing, it reminds me that there are others out there who are engaging with what I am putting out there. This means a lot more to me than people simply agreeing with it, or spending hours in hangouts talking about why they disagree with it. The last few weeks in particular, typing away at a laptop in a cafe, for hours on end, day after day, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there are others out there who read these words, and think about them. So thank you, to yourself and everybody else who has taken the time to leave a comment over the past few weeks.

A few points I want to respond to in particular:

perhaps a video showcasing and instructing to the community how you perform deep research would be more helpful for the hopeless?

Yes, pretty much every day now I spend some time thinking about what I do next. It is not intentional, the thoughts simply cross my mind. I like to imagine that I will put aside some time to properly explicate my own research methodology, and not only that, but do so in a way which might resonate with even some of the rusted-on conspiracy types. I once made a video in which I explained the difference between primary and secondary source evidence. I suppose that if making videos was going to improve the research methodologies of the ‘truthers’, this one ought to have had some positive impact. Did it? I don’t think so.

I will elaborate on this elsewhere, but here is the crux of the matter: if somebody takes the attitude of prioritising primary source information, and seeking it out as a matter of routine, they will eventually come to the conclusion that ‘history’ beyond about 150 years back is, at best, unsourced and unreliable – and at worst, an outright, blatant fabrication. Yes, all of it. Which leads me to…

…such a scenario would at least offer ‘professional’ parrying against what seems (at least partially thus far to me) a more nuanced, exploratory form of epistemological nihilism.

This is a fair criticism (even if it is not intended as such). In fact, it has occurred to me recently that one of the main reasons I have found myself drawn into thorough study of the the field of ‘synchromysticism’ is that it has helped me to better understand not only the validity of my own, increasing, ‘uncertainty’ about existence, but also the importance of stories in our lives. That is, I am even more confident now that it is not only valid, but sensible, to remain ‘uncommitted’ to beliefs on this event or that event, given the entirely subjective nature of our experience, and the fact that we cannot and do not experience empirically (i.e. with our senses) the vast majority of the events which are discussed in this scene. I am also beginning to fully appreciate just how spiritually draining it can be for an individual to apply genuine skepticism to the accepted ‘truths’ of our existence (think evolution, spinning ball earth, history) without also taking the time to create, even if only for oneself, some kind of alternative reason/purpose for existence, a narrative to believe in, if only for a few moments per day.

i don’t remember all the names, dates or content pieces, and don’t wish to belabor the point, but bemoaning these types and their brethren are beneath the standards i feel the jlb project represents.

I agree 100%. All I can say in defense of my former self is that I had invested a certain amount, emotionally/psychologically, into the idea that among the many and seemingly-vaired characters in this scene, there were others like me. People who, with just a little bit of constructive criticism, and some time to reassess their own beliefs/methods, would begin to do genuine research and produce legitimately insightful content based on that research. I truly believed this was not only a possibility, but likely, and I probably didn’t realise at the time that my want for this was as much borne out of desire to be able to sit back and watch/read/listen to (what I would consider to be) worthwhile content, as it was borne out of a desire to not feel so different/alone/whateever.

It has taken me a long time to properly understand and appreciate the reality: these people on YouTube, regardless of their intent or motivations, are simply not up to it, and they probably never will be. If they were inclined/capable, they’d be doing it right now. They are not inclined/capable, they are not really interested, and nor do they have to be. I say good luck to them. Knowing what I now know, I can assure you that I will not be mixing with these people the way I did in the past. I have made this clear to several of them behind the scenes, as well as intimated as much publicly with my more recent video.

I know how difficult it is to find time to do proper, independent, primary-source research, especially for people with full-time jobs and families to tend to. That is why I don’t expect to see it from those in the audience. These characters on YouTube, they clearly have the time to do proper research. Moreover, they claim that they are doing research. Whose fault is it that I put these elements together and came to the conclusion that eventually some of them might actually get involved in what I call deep skepticism? Mine, not theirs. These people are not researchers, they are YouTubers. I hold no ill-will towards them and, again, I say good luck to them.

in short, the pursuit of understanding more detail about what we live on i feel is a worthy quest.

I completely agree with you. I don’t want to say too much right now, because so much is still left to do before I begin making plans for my life post-Dinoskeptic. What I will say is that although my public work on cosmology has been scaled down to (hopefully) zero, my work on the topic is far from finished. For the time being, I say let these FE clowns and their desperate hangers-on have the limelight. ‘The ox is slow but the earth is patient’.

excited to see how the winton staff will receive your questions. hopefully not with a hand over the camera or requests to discontinue recording. i’m sure you have a few preemptive chess moves up your sleeve to avoid these brick walls.

I suspect that so long as I am respectful, all will be fine. I truly don’t see these people as my adversaries. I’m not even really trying to ‘expose’ them per se, in the sense that I do not intend to contradict what they are saying, or even make the case that what they are saying is absurd. I truly believe that their story, as they present it, is so silly that all I need do is let them tell it. If the audience believes the dino-magicians, I say, ‘enjoy the show’. The rest of us – which may amount to no more than the small handful of people who read the articles on this site – can sit back and enjoy (and perhaps occasionally recoil in horror at) the absurdity of it all. What a time to be alive.
i enjoy and derive value from the spoken and written words here, and look forward to future content. so far the material hasn’t jarred the innards like the exordium page forebodes. i know nothing was on offer, nor to be expected, but is there something in the pipeline that might introduce a grander paradigm shift from where some of us, (i’m assuming most members of this site) have already settled in? if used for dramatic effect or to scare off normies who may have dipped their feet in the waters but whose hard ‘truths’ too cold to plunge… perfectly understandable. and i know the answers to one’s life itself are found from within, but from the lie system standpoint, I’m wondering if there’s something around the corner that’s revelatory.

Another very fair criticism. The effect that new information and ideas will have on each individual is, obviously, going to vary from person to person. All I can know is what effect it has had on me, and even then, I have no counterfactual – no ‘alternative universe JLB who doesn’t know’ – to compare myself to, so even the effect I think this has all had on me is difficult to accurately/confidently gauge. That said, I’m sure you and the other Full Members will appreciate my motivations for employing that Exordium page. I don’t want people signing up here to feel part of something, or under the false pretense that I have found ‘truth’ or ‘happiness’ and am able to share it with them. In fact, a lot of what I have found has left me numb. Let me share here a passage of an email I recently sent to a man who had been kind enough to send me a detailed email about his own journey, and his appreciation of my work:

“Then you have the normies. How could you explain to somebody that everything they think they know is wrong, and not only that, but comically silly? I think this is one of the reasons why one of my two main demographics is young men: they have less investment in the system, so it is not as hard to take. Once somebody has sacrificed a lot of time, a lot of their life, into the system, once they have become emotionally invested in family and decades-long friendships, it would be painful to start to see these things in a different light. Even for me, when I was back down in Melbourne (where I grew up) for a few months late last year, I saw everybody in a new light, compared to the last time I was there. It was like the people I knew were gone. Another human, with the same name and appearance, was there, but they were not the person I knew/remembered. Of course, they were the same, it was me that was different. The thing is, it is my perception of them that is real to me, so in a very real way, the old ‘them’ was gone. Heavy stuff.”

I am not so conceited or presumptuous to think that anything I say/present behind the paywall is going to dramatically affect other peoples lives (for better or for worse). At the same time, I feel there is a certain responsibility to let people know, right from the outset, that this site is not designed (or likely) to make them happier, to give them answers to their burning questions. If it does have this effect, then good, and I hope they take the time to let me know. It will seriously make my day, and every now and then I do get very positive emails along those lines. But if that is what they are signing up for, then they have just thrown away $20 – and I am happy to refund it, no questions asked. You can make a lot more money selling people hope, selling them something to believe in, but if my main concern was money, I wouldn’t have been living an itinerant lifestyle for the past nine months, eating away at my savings. Know what I mean? That is really what the Exordium page is: an explanation that if somebody signed up for hope or for something to believe in, then they ought to know that this is not what they thought it was.

i’ll appeal to all subscribers as i don’t expect any one person to have solutions and would love to foster more of a community in the comments.

I appreciate and echo the sentiments wholeheartedly.

As for the Supertramp lyrics, imagine how I felt when I first read them myself as part of this 9/11 sync research. If there is something ‘above’ all of this, it certainly has a sense of humour. Gallows humour perhaps? Either way, it makes me laugh.

Haha, I also sorta had the impression that you were a flat earther. And I tried to avoid anything that was FE. You seemed involved or tied to that scene regardless of whether you actually were a flat earther. Also, you are good at speaking and very charming, that makes me think shill/salesman/con artist

And you wanted everyone to go to your private website, why? So you can fill my computer up with shill-hacking software? Lesta said to be suspicious of entities that try to direct you to private websites.

Makes you think I am a conman or made you think I am a conman, i.e. present tense or past tense?

I’ve been doing this for three years now and so far as I am aware, nobody has been able to demonstrate that any of my claims are incorrect – save for my comments about the 1987 Nature ‘Out of Africa’ study, which I had erroneously claimed involved zero real Africans, when in fact it involved two. How can a man who produces as much original content as I do, on topics as diverse as those I cover, be wrong about so few things? How is that possible, if I am in any way deceitful or malevolent?

I have asked several people this very question, on and off the air. You know what some of them have said in reply? ‘Maybe your job as a shill is to tell the truth’. I shit you not. I have been dealing with complete and utter retards for far too long. That I ever took them seriously is yet more evidence of how flawed I am as a person.

I trust you JLB. I never thought you were a conman. I originally thought you were a bit of an entertainer, in it for the clicks and views, but that was a long time ago. Your stuff IS very entertaining, but I know you are in it for the right reasons.

Thank you very much for the kind words. I would advise anybody against ‘trust’ in me (at least until they have met me in person) but when you say that my stuff is entertaining and that you can see I am in it for the right reasons, that means a lot to me. Thank you!

One thing that I think would be interesting and ethical is “picking on someone your own size.” You personally may or may not want to do this, and perhaps it’s unnecessarily confrontational which distracts from your core mission of conveying truth to those who seek it. But I think it would be ethical for “one” to embarrass normies who DO have power or who ARE to some extent knowingly pushing lies.

One example I liked was this: An American Professor named James Tracey was making some noise about the Sandy Hook hoax. (He eventually lost his job over it and lost his court case about the unfair firing.) But in the early days, enough people questioned the story that CNN decided to bring this “doubter” on the air to berate him for being insensitive to parental suffering, insufficiently respectful of the government/media narrative, etc. In short, they wanted to bully him. And in the eyes of most normies, they succeeded. But in my view, James Tracey took a scalp. Anderson Cooper indignantly explained that CNN had gone to Sandy Hook and met with grieving “parents,” etc., and demanded to know “how could anyone doubt” the “facts” of this “story.” And James Tracey calmly asked Anderson whether any CNN reporters had actually confirmed any deaths, seen any evidence of violence, been allowed into the school, etc. And Anderson Cooper was forced to admit that CNN’s reporting, even with 10 reporters on the scene for a week for a huge event like this, is limited to copying down statements from politicians and government officials. He admitted that CNN made no attempt to verify the statements, but considered that unnecessary: “Why would government officials lie?” LOL.

Anyway, I’d be interested in seeing some challenges of believers who have some power. I’d like to see them challenged by someone LIKE you (skeptical, rational, research-based), but not ACTUALLY you, because I’d prefer to benefit from your wisdom rather than have you poking hornets’ nests and creating enemies.

But I do think there are many powerful people in the media and in government and among the super-rich and connected who DO know all about the Lie System and then a whole bunch more who at least parrot its talking points uncritically for self-serving reasons.

A lot of journalists fall into that latter group. When it comes to things like 9/11, they are strangely uncurious. Because they know that it is low status and career suicide to question the story from TPWRTS. So they abandon rationality and defend their lack of journalistic inquiry with an appeal to authority: “It really happened, they told us it was Bin Laden, and it’s “crazy” to think otherwise. Yes, I too learned about it from TV, but from TV talking heads I “respect” (but have never double-checked.)” They know perfectly well that the story is not supported by evidence, would not hold up in court, etc. But they also know that questioning the story is “just not done,” especially at their news station.

Maybe Ali G should get back on the road and ask prominent people some uncomfortable questions about NASA, 9/11, hospitals, and dinosaurs. Seems ethical to me. And I would certainly find it entertaining.

Great rules for how we want to be treated and how we should treat others. I really like this one:

“Not intentionally misled – even by parties who believe that misleading me may be ‘good’ for me.”

One final thought. I don’t mean this to be confrontational at all, but rather just a part of open discussion. There does seem to be one non-retarded explanation for why a shill might tell the truth. You mention it in your Truman Show analysis. It’s when the goal is to take the audience through an initiation ritual. TPWRTS sometimes engage in revelation of the method, for various reasons. Maybe sometimes they want to discourage us; maybe sometimes they want to initiate us; maybe sometimes they want to build credibility so we’ll swallow later lies. But it’s certainly possible for perps to tell truths.